Just over a year after the resumption of production and sales of trucks in the main countries of South America, the markets are showing signs of strong and sustained growth. Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Colombia in the first half of this year grew by more than 50% compared with the same period last year and, most importantly, the performance was also better than the previous semester in 2019.

Trailer and truck body builders in Brazil are warning the price increases in raw materials will impact economic recovery and their businesses this year. In particular, the impact the increase in the price of steel – still the main building commodity – is likely to have a negative impact on sales and the ability of the manufacturers to supply customers in 2021.

According to the National Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea) based in São Paulo, Brazil, truck production in the first half of 2021 totalled 74,700 units, an increase of 115.1% over the same period last year (34,738 units); which is the highest volume in seven years, since the first half of 2014.

The number of buses operating in Brazil in 2020 fell by 0.5% to 388,900 units in circulation as compared with 391,000 units in 2019, according to the National Union of the Automotive Vehicle Component Industry (Sindipeças) with the average age of buses in Brazil having lengthened to ten years and nine months, two months more than in the previous year, ie 10 years and seven months.

At the beginning of the year, Volvo Latin America Ltda announced it was hiring of 400 temporary employees for the plant in Curitiba (PR).

The National Association of Bus Manufacturers is forecasting the worst year this century for the Brazilian bus industry, with performance comparable only to 1999, when only 12,098 bodies were produced.

Moscow hosted the Bauma СТТ Russia exhibition which was supported by more than 340 companies from 16 countries. In addition to specialist construction machinery, the show featured new heavy-duty tipper trucks from Russia’s traditional on-highway commercial vehicle builders.

In the first three months of 2021, a total of 19,101 medium and heavy-duty trucks were sold in Russia, which was 11.5% more than the 17,076 registered in the first three months of 2020.

Sales of light-duty trucks in Q1 of 2021 increased by 14.9% year-on-year to 26,549 units, according to data produced by Avtostat Info data.

The registrations of buses with gross vehicle weights of 5t and more in Russia in Q1 of 2021 fell by 24.2% year-on-year to 2,420 units, according to LLC Avtostat Info.

The market for commercial vehicles over 2 tons gvw in East Asia’s seven main markets (excluding China) expanded by 4.2% to 366,367 units in the first quarter of 2021 after declining by almost 19% to 351,556 units in the same period of last year.

The Japanese market for commercial vehicles over 2 tons gvw expanded by just 1.4% year-on-year to 118,511 units in the first quarter of 2021 from 116,830 units in the same period of last year.